Why use a daily cash report? When facing a cash crunch, CFO/Controllers often manage cash by reviewing the online bank balance. Though easy to do, this number is not accurate. It does not take into consideration outstanding checks. Another symptom of a cash crunch is that accounting falls behind in processing information. By preparing this daily cash flow forecast or projection you force the accounting department to stay current with posting transactions.

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Update the Daily Cash Report daily; remember, this process should not take more than thirty minutes to prepare. However, there is some element of planning involved insofar as weekly cash commitments are concerned. If the company is in a severe cash crunch, you may need to negotiate with vendors about partial payments.

The Daily Cash Report format should be set up and managed by the CFO/controller. However, it can be outsourced to a staff member in accounting to keep up on a daily basis. There are 3 sections to the Daily Cash Report: Today’s Cash Position, Weekly Cash Position and Payables Detail.

Prepare the daily cash flow report in the morning of each workday. Use the information on the report to help you manage cash for the day that you prepare it.

Note: Today’s Cash Position is really the ending cash position from yesterday.

Daily Cash Position

This purpose of this section is to give you the cash position at the start of the day as per the G/L balance. The cash position for the start of today is the same as the ending cash balance from the last business day. Hence, the report you update and start off with at the beginning of today will be on the information from the last business day. (Reminder: this report is prepared the following day of the reporting period.)

Starting Balance

If the report you are preparing for today is based on information from the last business day, then it is important to capture all the cash flow events that happened during the course of the last business day. To do so, we need to have several anchors. First, you need a starting balance. This starting balance is the beginning cash balance per G/L and any outstanding checks from last business day (usually yesterday). This beginning cash balance is the same as the ending cash balance from two business days ago. Both the cash balance and outstanding check balance should be summed together to a Reconciled Balance. Click here for more information on account reconciliation.

Cash Inflows

After obtaining the starting balance for the last business day, we need to capture cash inflows. Examples of cash inflows include cash payments, lockbox payments, credit card payments, and any checks received through the mail. Again, these cash inflows and deposits are from the last business day. Add up the total amount of cash inflows together to obtain the Total Deposits.

Managing your cash flow is vital to a business’s health. If you haven’t been paying attention to your cash flow, access the free 25 Ways to Improve Cash Flow whitepaper to learn how to can stay cash flow positive in tight economies. Click here to access your free guide!

Cash Disbursements

The third piece of financial information you need to obtain is information on cash disbursements from the last business day. Cash disbursements include payroll checks, A/P checks. Your firm may prefer to have a separate line item for certain significant cash disbursements. As long as you keep the overall report simple and uncluttered, this is fine. After all cash disbursements have been accounted for, sum up together to obtain Total Disbursements. Enter the cash disbursements as negative numbers. The report is intended for non-accountants who think in terms of expenses being negative.

Sum up all of these elements together to obtain the ending cash balance for the last business day:

ENDING CASH BALANCE AS OF : This is also the Beginning Cash Balance for TODAY. Reconciled Balance + Total Deposits – Total Disbursements.

Weekly Cash Position

The weekly cash position gives management an estimate of how much incoming cash and cash disbursements the company expects to have for the entire week. Remember, this is an estimate only. Update this estimate periodically so that the company improves on the estimate. Your company may prefer to have a separate line item for certain significant cash disbursements. This is acceptable as long as you keep the overall report as simple as possible.

Managing Payables

The CFO/controller will need to list the different vendor/suppliers that the company intends to pay for the week. During times of extreme cash shortage, it may be helpful to make a note of which vendor/suppliers are of high priority.

Update daily. However at the beginning of the week, plan to give extra attention to prioritize which vendors should be paid. Depending on the cash situation of the company, try to think of paying only a portion of what’s owed.

List of the vendor/suppliers with the amount needed to be paid. Finally, sum up the total amount. Vendor A + Vendor B + Vendor C = TOTAL

Monitor & Review

Monitor and review the Daily Cash Flow Report on a daily basis in situations where cash management is big key part of company survival. A key part to focus on is the estimate of weekly cash deposits. Monitoring and reviewing the cash deposits will improve the accuracy of the estimates. For more ways to improve your cash flow like this one, download the free 25 Ways to Improve Cash Flow whitepaper.

When we talk to people who have sales or operations backgrounds, we quickly pick up on their hatred/dislike/disdain/etc. for accounting. We get it. Accounting can be boring, especially if it’s not used for management purposes. But when we talk with the management team either in our coaching workshops or our consulting practice, we always implement a flash report in their company. Why? Because it’s a management tool that should be used by everyleader in an organization! Flash reports are a game changer when it comes to leading a company financially. In fact, I will be bold enough to say every company should be using a flash report to make any decision in the company. (Keep in mind, we are not recommending that this is the only tool you should use to make decisions.)

What is a Flash Report?

First, what is a flash report? We have defined Flash Reports (or financial dashboard report) as “periodic snapshot(s) of key financial and operational data.” It measures three factors in your company, that include liquidity, productivity, and profitability. Unlike what sales and operational leaders typically think about accounting, this tool is supposed to guide them with the numbers. In addition, the numbers from flash reports aren’t going to be a 100% accurate. But if they are 80-90% accurate, then they are accurate enough for the management to make decisions.

How a Flash Report Changes the Role of the Financial Leader

Stereotypically, an accountant or someone with accounting/finance background is a numbers cruncher. They want to look at all of the numbers and want the management team to also get excited about every number. In reality, there is not enough time to focus on every number. Instead, you should be looking specifically at 6-8 numbers that drive your business. We call them your key performance indicators or KPIs. Anyone in your company should be able to look at your flash report (a one-page report) to assess what the KPIs are doing.

Not just anyone in accounting cannot create a flash report… It would quickly get out of control because there are so many angles, numbers, and perspectives that you could interpret the data from. Unfortunately, there is not enough time in the day to look at all the data. It would take forever for management to look at all the information and make a decision. We know there is an art to be a financial leader. There is also an art to creating flash reports or dashboard reports. The goal is for the flash report to be prepared and completed within 30 minutes. It should cover a week’s data for the company to quickly pivot or adjust if need be.

How to Prepare a Flash Report

For a flash report to be a game changer, you have to set it up correctly the first time. Prepare a flash report by producing the following sections in consecutive order.

Productivity

First, the financial leader (CFO/Controller) needs to meet the owner or executive leaders to come up with some metrics for the productivity section. Both finance and operations need to be involved in this conversation because this section is what sets up the next two sections. You will know you have succeed when you have an indication of the key performance metrics of your company. These metrics also connect operations to the financial performance of the company. It’s an accountability partner. If you are looking to improve productivity in your company, then click here to read about our insights on how to do it.

Liquidity

When you prepare a flash report, this section is where your CEO is going to look at first. It’s the pulse of the company because it tells them how much the company is generating cash (or not generating cash). The cash situation is often the first issue we discuss with consulting clients. Unfortunately, we find a lot of companies are not able to tell you if they have enough money to pay the bills and keep the lights on. Remember, cash is king.

Profitability

This is going to be accounting’s favorite section because it deals with what they focus on! The reason why you need to produce it last is because it needs to connect with the rest of the business. It should give management a rough idea of how much money they made during a given period. You will need to have a good understanding of your accruals if you are going to provide profitability in as part of the flash report.

Remember, timeliness is more important than accuracy in this flash report. There’s a reason why it’s called a flash report! Furthermore, management needs to focus on how the trends change over time.

Flash Reports Are a Game Changer

Flash reports are a game changer in the business world because it pushes companies to break down barriers in the business. We frequently say that CFOs and the financial leader of a company should walk around the office/warehouse and talk with sales managers, warehouse workers, operations managers, etc. Financial leaders need to get out of accounting so that they can lead financially. But the same goes for operations and sales persons. It may not be exciting, but they need to visit accounting.

This past week, we hosted a live webinar for those operations employees that were promoted to a P&L Leader. They were great at their job, but now they manage an entire department/division/etc. So, we touched on how they should be using flash reports as they manage their operation. Anyone in your company can be a financial leader. You just have to have the right tools, and flash reports are a great way to start.

Tips for Monitoring Your Business

Your flash report should be a living, breathing document that your business uses. As a result, we wanted to share some time for monitoring your business as you move forward with your flash report. Include the 3 most recent historical periods in addition to the current period in the flash report. This allows you to analyze trends in the same document. Have your entire management team agree to commit to the document. You may need to adjust it as time goes on, and that’s okay. Review weekly with your management. During these meetings, it may be useful to convert the sections into graphs so that the non-accountants can see what the numbers are communicating.

Whether in response to low oil prices or simply in an effort to run leaner, companies across the globe are cutting jobs. Last week, Chevron announced that it plans to lay off roughly 10% of its workforce, roughly 6000 to 7000 workers, in 2016 to deal with the plunge in crude prices. Deutsche Bank recently declared its intention to reduce headcount by 23,000, roughly a quarter of its personnel, as part of a broader restructuring plan.

Dealing with a reduction in staff, regardless of the reason, can be challenging. The workload doesn’t change simply because there are fewer people to share it, so companies must figure out how to get the same amount of work done with fewer people. In short, they must improve productivity.

Improving Productivity – Doing More With Less

Improving productivity begins with measuring it. In his book The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt defines productivity as:

Now that you’ve discovered what productivity measures to track, it’s time to track them. Including these KPIs on your weekly flash report or dashboard allows you to keep an eye on how key resources are being utilized. And when resources (such as people) are scarce, even small gains in productivity can yield big results.

The final piece of the productivity puzzle is to tie improvement to recognition or rewards. Employees are likely reeling from the reduction in staff. Providing incentives for meeting productivity goals will not only help ensure that the goals are met, but can provide a much-needed boost in morale.

We’d love to know what steps your company has taken to do more with less, so leave us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Historically, CFOs have relied upon traditional financial statements to guide their decision-making. Today, the prevalence of more sophisticated accounting systems and the demand for more information more quickly has given rise to the need for different kinds of reporting. Here’s a list of 5 tools that can help give you manage cash, identify areas for improvement, and plan for the future.

5 Tools You Might Not Be Using (But Should)

Daily/Weekly Cash Report

The Daily (or Weekly, depending upon how tight cash is) Cash Report gives a snapshot of the daily/weekly cash position as well as a forecast of expected cash inflows and outflows for the day/week. In a cash crunch, using this tool daily can be a lifesaver. Highlighting projected cash shortfalls can help focus efforts on collecting receivables or generating revenues. Once the cash crisis passes, preparing this report at least on a weekly basis can help the CFO determine if the cash balance is growing, or if it is being used elsewhere in the business.

Projections

Most companies prepare an annual budget, but not all prepare projections. What’s the difference? A budget sets the company’s goals while a projection defines its expectations. Budgets are static and are often useless shortly after they are prepared. By contrast, projections are dynamic and adapt to changing conditions and expectations. Projections should be updated with actuals monthly and forecasted numbers (such as sales) should be changed going forward as better information is obtained. While many companies prepare projected income statements and possibly cash flow statements, few prepare a projected balance sheet. A projected balance sheet is a key tool used by lenders when deciding whether to invest in a company.

Fluctuation Analysis

A Fluctuation (flux) Analysis, also called common-size financial statements, looks at changes in the income statement or balance sheet expressed in dollars and as a percentage of sales or total assets. Prepared annually or as needed, this report looks at changes over a four- or five-year period and is useful to identify “slippage” or small changes in accounts over the course of years that might not show up when looked at as raw dollars only. For example, a 2% increase (as a percentage of sales) in COGS wages over a four year period may not seem like much. But in a $50 mm company, that’s a million dollars of slippage!

Ratio Analysis

If you’ve ever put together a loan package, you’re probably familiar with Ratio Analysis. Bankers love this tool! They can use it to compare your company to others in your industry and market using established benchmarks. It’s also a useful tool for CFOs for the same purpose. Is your company as profitable as it should be? Sometimes it’s tough to know unless you’ve compared it to others in your industry. Looking at key financial ratios is also useful to track trends within the company year over year. If your banker is looking at it, shouldn’t you?

As you can see, there are many other tools besides the financial statements that can help you make better, more timely decisions and plan for the future. Which tools are you using in your business?

Using Flash Reports to Improve Productivity

What often happens is the CFO/Controller throws in any indicator that might be important just to cover their bases. Unfortunately, the report may become too detailed to prepare quickly. And it will loose its usefulness. Eventually, either you stop producing the report or the CFO or Controller only looks at it. In order to drive productivity, all key team members must review the report and take action on the results.

Here’s a helpful video of three things you should know about preparing a flash report.

1. Measuring Productivity Is Often The Most Important Section

When you identify 2-3 measurements in volume, you can have an exponential impact on your profitability. Although measuring productivity is the most difficult part in a flash report, get operations involved to get the key drivers they use to run their part of the business.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Metrics

Key performance metrics should include both financial and operational metrics, as well as, combinations of the two. Key performance measurement is as much an art as a science. The actual numbers themselves are not as important as the trends in the key performance measures. By combining financial measurements with operational performance measurements you can gauge the productivity of an organization.

So, in order to calculate productivity over a period (expressed as a KPI), we would take a measure of throughput such as widgets produced and divide it by a resource such as machine hours. The resulting KPI would be widgets produced per machine hour.

Examples of key performance indicators (KPIs) would include the following:

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Dashboard

KPI reporting should be done on a daily or weekly basis. Furthermore, you should prepare a key performance indicatorsdashboard on the shortest timeframe feasible. The KPI dashboard should be easy to prepare and not take more than thirty minutes to generate. If it does, then you are making the process too complicated. A template should be used to generate the key performanceindicators. This template should enable the CFO to identify both positive and negative trends.

Inventory Turnover Ratio Analysis Explanation

Inventoryturnover ratio explanations occur very simply through an illustration of high and low turnover ratios. Despite this, many businesses do not survive due to issues with inventory. A low inventory turnover ratio shows that a company may be overstocking or deficiencies in the product line or marketing effort. It is a sign of ineffective inventory management because inventory usually has a zero rate of return and high storage cost. Higher inventory turnover ratios are considered a positive indicator of effective inventory management. However, a higher inventory turnover ratio does not always mean better performance. It sometimes may indicate inadequate inventory level, which may result in decrease in sales.

Inventory Turnover Ratio Calculation

Inventory turnover ratio calculations may appear intimidating at first but are fairly easy once a person understands the key concepts of inventory turnover. For example, assume annual credit sales are $10,000, and inventory is $5,000. The inventory turnover is:

10,000 / 5,000 = 2 times

For example, assume cost of goods sold during the period is $10,000 and average inventory is $5,000.

This means that there would be 2 inventory turns per year. That is a company would take 6 months to sell and replace all inventories.

Inventory Turnover Ratio Analysis Example

For example, Derek owns a retail clothing store which sells the best designer attire. Derek worked in the apparel industry for quite a while, thus is well suited for the operations of his company. Still, Derek has a little to learn about the business of retail clothing. He studied the subject with passion and wants to grow his business. From his study, he realized that inventory turnover is the key to his business. First, Derek talked to his accountant for inventory turnover ratio analysis. You need somewhat of an expert because the matter is more complicated than the abilities simple, web-based inventory turnover ratio calculator.

Derek decides, from this, that he needs to make some changes. So he aligns a few strategies to move his products. First, he considers marking-down styles from the previous season as each season approaches. Similarly, he considers product give-aways with minimum transaction amounts. Then Derek considers the option of spreading contests and deals on social networking websites. He then finishes his evaluation by finding ways to turn his extra inventory into a tax write-off. Derek applied his newly found skills and knowledge to better his business. As a result, Derek looks forward to the future.